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Oregon weather warms up after rainfall, temps should hit 80s next week

After a prolonged period of rain and cool temperatures, Oregon's weather is turning the corner toward more summer-like conditions over the weekend and particularly next week.

The rainfall over the past week and a half was critical to slow the state from sliding even deeper into drought and left the month of May with slightly above-average precipitation.

But, that's about to slowly change.

Northwest Oregon will see the rain disappear for good by Saturday, beginning a long stretch of forecasted sunny and warming temperatures, including temperatures in the 80s by the middle of next week.

"The weather is transitioning from a wet to dry pattern because a ridge of high pressure will move over our region starting next week and will persist throughout the next seven days," said Valerie Thaler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland. "Whether or not this is the full transition into Oregon's dry season is uncertain. Climatologically, we usually see rain through June."

The recent rainfall was critical. Salem has received 2.51 inches of rain so far, bringing it slightly above the average rainfall of 2.22 inches for the full month of May.

Even more rain fell in the foothills and mountains, which helped boost the level of reservoirs in the Willamette Valley to 86 percent of normal, a far better mark than a few weeks ago.

For Salem, the current rainfall total is 6.78 inches this spring while the seasonal average is 9.02 inches.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 12 years. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.